1-  Your school has been a loyal supporter of the Emballé 5.0 competition organised by the CNE since the beginning. Can you tell us about Emballé 5.0 as seen and experienced by your students and teaching staff?

Indeed, since 2015, 9 classes of second-year DUT and BUT Packaging Emballage et Conditionnement students have submitted innovations for this competition.

The competition is an integral part of our teaching programme, enabling second-year students to study and question existing packaging while taking into account industrial and regulatory constraints.

From September onwards, Mr Bruno Siri presents the competition and the students work in groups of 3 or 4 to choose a theme, carry out a technology watch, propose an innovation and work on project management.

Each group has a mentor teacher to guide them.

At the beginning of November, each group presents its work at an oral presentation in English in the presence of the mentor selected by the CNE.

In December, each group works with a teacher on video editing and presents the final product to a panel of teachers and students.

In January, we work with them to finalise the documents. If any groups are nominated by the CNE jury, the second and third year classes are called on to coach and train the finalists.

The competition is therefore an important part of our training and all the students and teachers in the Packaging Department are united around Emballé 5.0.

2-  You mentioned difficulties in recruiting students in the packaging sector. How do you explain this?

Although some packaging departments have been in existence for 20 years, the University Bachelor of Technology programme is very recent, with the first intake scheduled for 2021. Setting up this course during a period of health crisis has been difficult.

form of the DUT diplomas into BUT is also taking place against a backdrop of falling demographics and an increase in the number of post-bac courses.

Finally, the reform of the baccalauréat, with the introduction of specialities, has drastically reduced the number of applicants with more scientific profiles. As a result, it’s difficult to raise awareness of our course, especially as this speciality is only offered at 6 IUTs in France (Évreux, Reims, Avignon, Chambéry, Castres and Dole).

Some high school students may also be impressed by the idea of enrolling in a 3-year university course, even though it is professionally oriented and offers 26 weeks of work experience, educational projects and a final year of work experience with a company.

Our course is particularly well suited to general baccalaureate holders with a scientific speciality, as well as technological baccalaureate holders (STI2D, STD2A and STL). The packaging and conditioning degree is a multi-faceted course that combines scientific, technical and creative skills around 4 professional competencies (eco-design, certification, industrialisation and flow management).

We are therefore open to a wide range of candidate profiles, whether they are more scientific, technical, creative or simply curious. The skills acquired by our students will enable them to go on to engineering, design or packaging masters schools, or to enter the job market quickly.

3-  How can the CNE, in addition to facilitating relationships, show that packaging is essential and that the associated training courses are attractive?

For many families, the image of packaging is associated more with pollution and waste than with the protection and safety of packaged products. Similarly, plastic bashing campaigns can put off secondary school students.

The CNE must continue to support and take part in key events such as packaging trade fairs, conferences and other biennials that bring together training courses and companies in the sector.

It could also be interesting to forge more links between companies specialising in packaging, employers’ federations, IUTs and secondary schools. This could take the form of trade conferences in schools, visits to industrial sites and publicity in the main national media.

These communications and discussions would help to :

– break down preconceived ideas

– promote the know-how and innovation of our companies,

– show that packaging is booming and that we need new generations to continue innovating.